Blog of the Courtier
Founded in 2008, “Blog of the Courtier” takes its name and inspiration from the “Book of the Courtier” by the great Renaissance man of letters, Baldassare Castiglione.  In his writing about the way to achieve personal, political, and professional success, Castiglione stressed the need to constantly strive to improve and educate yourself, while always behaving as a gentleman of deeply-held principles – even when popular movements might challenge those virtues. Along these lines, the blog explores a variety of cultural topics, from our changing Western society to religion, the arts, and civic discourse, often in response to current events.  Many posts from the blog have been re-posted, linked to, criticized, and quoted across a wide spectrum of commentary, from The Wall Street Journal to Washington CityPaper, among others.

Catholic Barcelona
The ever-growing “Catholic Barcelona” project is the most comprehensive online resource in English for those interested in the nearly 2,000-year history of Christianity in the city of Barcelona, my mother’s home town and a place I know well.  The site features descriptions and photographs of dozens of churches, monasteries, and historic sites spread throughout the city, based on my own research and on contributions from readers.  It has allowed me the great privilege of helping people from all over the world, from the United States to Malaysia, Japan to South Africa,  who have contacted me through the site to help them plan their business trips or vacations in Barcelona, so they can see some of these interesting places for themselves.